At the end of 2013, our book group was discussing our “Three Words for 2014.” Mine were “grow, grow and grow.” I’m not sure how well I’ve done on the personal growth front, but the hair growth has definitely proceeded, if slower than I like.

Here’s the 2014 Hair Year in Review:

January: Lizard Mohawk to Fauxhawk

The first month of 2015 was all about getting the mohawk to grow out (and seeing how much gray I actually have!)

February-March-April: Spring Green

I was a little sad that I didn’t do green in the big hair year, so February started out with a dark green:

That was much more minty by March:

And nearly gone by April:

May-June-July: Red and Growing

I decided to go read again, and got another trim.

Looking back and the pictures, the summer was a fruitful hair growing season, because this picture was in early June:

And this one was in late July:

August-September-October-November: Back to brown and growing, growing, growing.

By the end of summer, I went back to something close to my natural brown, and endured/enjoyed variations on the curly-puff, almost-afro, as my hair got longer and longer, but still wanted to stick up.

December: Burgundy and almost grown?

Did a quick dye job with some off-the shelf ‘Burgundy.” It’s finally long enough it hangs more than it sticks up.

It even hangs from under my hat, which was not the case a year ago! So lots of growing, but still a bit more to go

Like this:

Hello 2014 (nearly three weeks in). Liz, Michelle and I measured 2013 in new dos. What will this year bring? Hopefully lots of love and fun for everyone. And change, because change is good… and if it’s not, find what’s good in it.

I won’t be changing dos quite so much this year, the options seem a bit more limited – and that should force creativity, right? We’ll see. And we just may write about it occasionally too.

For those of you who’ve asked – it took me this long to settle on my favorite do from the little hair/blog project – July:

Probably most similar to what I’ve looked like most my life. Have I become nostalgic? The more things change, the more they stay the same?

Like this:

Thank you to everyone who has come along on this journey! You’ve listened to our hair adventures and shared your hair stories–here on the blog and in person. You all have lots of opinions on the different styles, and now that the year is almost at an end, it’s time to vote on your favorite ‘dos!

Liz’s picks: “My number one favorite hairstyle that Beth had this year was the fierce mohawk, and I’m not just saying that because I have one now. It looked awesome spiky and straight, curly, and flattened out. My second favorite was the shag, which was a different look. I loved the hairstyles that made Beth look like the rock star that she is!”

Michelle’s picks: “Have to agree with Liz on the mohawk. I was almost as nervous ahead of time about that one as for the mullet! But it turned out great. Monica, Beth’s hairdresser, and Beth are both rock stars! That girl can sport a mohawk and still look sexy. Tied for the mohawk is the pixie. Again, Beth surprises. She looks stunning in that short do – in fact, yesterday a stranger told her she looked Hollywood!”

Beth’s picks: “Liz rocks the Lizard – it sums up how incredibly bold and full of personality she is. She set her sights on that do from the start and ultimately executed it with flair. However, my favorite Liz do would have to be… well, can I vote for all of summertime? I loved June’s half-and-half, July’s tricolor, and August’s four-color swirl. And her trip to KCON captures the brilliant fun side of this whole hair blog project.”

Michelle’s picks: “Hate to be a dittohead, but yep, Beth’s right. Liz is the only person I know who would even think about doing the Lizard. And then, she went and did it. And it looks awesome! I, too, loved all the crazy color months but I think Liz looks amazing in October with that deep red color. It shows some of the little devil inside her.”

Liz’s pick: “I’m going to go with month five– that was sweet spot of the same length front and back, cute!”

Beth’s pick: “Michelle may be the strongest, most committed person I know. She vowed to let her hair grow for a year and she did it, no matter how uncomfortable it got. I think the process proved much more painful for her than it was for Liz or me and she endured – the only grower-outer to make it to the finish line. Bravo. My favorite was midyear – Month 7: Colorado Hair. It was just becoming unbearable for her by that point, but looked great! And it was July – warm and sunny, and she was blonde and smiling. Nice!”

Like this:

2. Music (what happened to be playing at the salon during the doing of the do)—Don’t remember much except we did hear a classic-sounding version of Let it Snow and a holiday song by Stevie Nicks.

3. Drink (what I sipped at the salon during the doing of the do)—Went to the liquor store with good intentions of concocting a spirited seasonal cocktail based on awesome suggestions from friends (thank you Shawna, Michelle, Bill, and Melanie!), but… I had trouble finding ingredients that added up to anything and ran out of time. Ended up rushing out of Argonaut with this:

Not bad in a pinch.

4. The Theory—Everybody knows that long hair on women is more feminine and attractive than a close-cropped do. Right? Probably as true as any stereotype. Just look at the assortment of fetching females above!

5. Reactions—Have heard some nice comments. And I get the short hair thing now – it’s easy. Though I’m still surprised sometimes when I see myself in the mirror.

Like this:

This is my friend, Sherry, on a frigid night in Denver after getting warmed up a little with a mojito. Her hair always looks great and she looks especially cute in that hat. As my hair is getting nearly as long as hers, I quizzed her a bit on her styling methods. Similar to me, she’s not much interested in spending lots of time on it. Hopefully I’m not outing her too much – she often rides to work with rollers in her semi-damp hair and then yanks them out as she gets to work. Tada! Hmmm…something to consider. Of course that’s about 2-3 more steps than I take.

I generally avoid hats to avoid major hathead to which my hair is particularly prone. Husband got me this sweet upcycled sweater hat for my birthday and I wore it straight for about two days. If you don’t take the hat off…you don’t have hathead, right?

Meanwhile another birthday gift showed up, this one from Sherry! Velcro rollers – did not even know those existed. You just put them in and they stick. Kind of.

Some time around then, I also got bangs. I just couldn’t take it any more.

I’m no stranger to rollers or bangs:

Post-rollers, feeling a bit over-coiffed:

Understandably, after my twelve months of complaining about growing my hair out, the questions just keep coming: when are you cutting your hair? are you cutting your hair on the 1st? etc.

You know, I just don’t know. Feels kind of dumb to just whack it off right away after all this trouble. Let’s see what the new year brings.

Like this:

Once upon a time we could drop our kids off at school without feeling so scared.

I started this hair/blog project as a frivolous distraction from seriousness and sadness in the world.

But some events demand attention. They deserve full focus.

We give them that, and simultaneously we keep living. We remember the good. We encourage our kids to embrace life and love and beauty and magic and laughter. We have a good cry and then we allow ourselves to have a good laugh too.

Maybe, when we’re ready, we could laugh at the hair of fictional characters. A dozen dos for you to peruse:

Oops, that’s only eleven. Who would you add?

P.S. On Friday night I thought about gun control and mental illness. I wondered why people bring children into this world. And I thought about my own choice to do so without a partner in a way I never had before. I hugged the babes and I cried to Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXxcMw5PTDg and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLHCC3geTpc. I knew I could only begin to imagine what people more directly involved were going through.

Like this:

I work with Beth and Liz and asked them a long time ago if I could write a guest post and here I am at the end – finally getting around to it. I think I have had almost every haircut between pixie and bob and I really love changing my hair, so I thought it would be fun to do a little post about all the haircuts I’ve had in the last 30 years.

My motto of haircuts has pretty much always been “it’ll grow back”! When I was in grade school I was always jealous of my friends with long braids – but not jealous or patient enough to grow it out. Here are some examples of grade school do’s.

I’m pretty sure my mom picked the kindergarten mullet. Although that is a pretty cute mullet, if I do say so myself.

Here’s a senior picture then the pixie cut I got right before I left for college.

Shortly after starting college, I started cutting my own hair. Mostly because I was cheap, but then I decided I could cut my hair exactly how I wanted it without having to explain it someone else.

This cut is my go-to self do.In the last 15 years I’ve probably been to a salon about 10 times. Even when I go, I usually fix it when I get home.

Here are my attempts at growing it out a few years ago. I had to get bangs and then dye it in order to keep from cutting it all off.

After growing it out, I chopped off 9 inches. Since then it has been various stages of short to bob, in various colors and accessories – even feathers for about a year.

Most recently my friends Amy and Casey and I got our haircut in Iceland!

They have to go to school for 4 years in order to cut hair there. So if you ever go, get your haircut. It’s an order. I still haven’t touched my hair with a pair of scissors in over a month – which is a sign that it was an excellent haircut.

But since it’s been over a month – I’m ready for something new. Silver/purple-ish? Dark again? hmmm.

Like this:

This is Beth. And this is how I look turning 45 on 12/10/13 (a “helfie,” [thanks Michelle!] – the color is for the girl who has strongly suggested blue from the start of all this [sorry I don’t have a bow]):

Here’s the post from last year:

It’s my birthday and I’m going to a party tonight. The party is not for me, and I hope not to cry.

I do expect to cry during 2013, however (and probably sooner). Sometimes over my hair.

I wanted to take this opportunity to document the starting do. This is how I look turning 44 on 12/10/12:

(Thanks photo’ers Jilly & Mae)

What will I look like turning 45 on 12.10.13? Whatever the do, I do promise to redo the bow-on-head pic.

P.P.S. I just learned (thank you Google) that I share a birthday with Ada Lovelace. From opensecrets.org: “Female bloggers owe a lot to Ada Lovelace, the imaginative and intelligent “enchantress of numbers.” As the first person to envision the use of computers for purposes beyond mathematical computations — and considered by many to be the first computer programmer — Lovelace not only paved the way for all those who use the Internet to communicate and educate, but continues to serve as a hero for women and girls involved in math, science and technology.” Also, a nice do.

Like this:

When Beth and I first cooked up this project in November, 2012, I started doing image searches to figure out what I wanted to do. One of my searches led me to an awesome pinterest board “Cute, sexy, awesome hair.” I was scanning through the amazing blue, purple, and rainbow-hued do’s, but there was one that immediately caught my eye:

I have a long-standing love for all things lizard (from a childhood/HS nickname of “Lizard”), so when I first met with my stylist Maggie last December, I showed her the picture of the guy on the far left. “I’m open to all kinds of cuts and colors,” I said, “but I definitely want to do the lizard mohawk.”

Maggie said ok, and recommended that we close out the year with the mohawk, since there wouldn’t be much hair to work with afterwards. A few times during the year, she did ask me “are you sure you don’t want to try a different mohawk? like that guy from JPL?” (he is awesome!)

But I had my sights set on the lizard do, and Maggie was convinced. We started out with some lizard clipart, and Maggie sized it and made a paper template.

Maggie shaved around the template (with a second person holding down the paper.)

I did have a little bit of a quiet freakout when the sides of my head were fully shaved (not to mention having supershort hair in the middle of an historic cold snap.) All in all, it turned out fantastic:

(One toe had to be eliminated and two toes on another foot were merged into one.)

We had some “eye stickers” leftover from a craft at work, which added some personality to the lizard.

Pretty dang close to the ideal version! (My only regret is that I forgot to save a “tail”, but that’s what clip-in braids from Claire’s are for!)